Burn Notice: "Sins of Omission" Review

Michael's ex comes back looking to rescue her son.

There was an interesting little "recap" at the beginning of "Sins of Omission" that I thought was quite clever, until I realized that it was just Michael (Jeffrey Donovan) talking to Carla (Tricia Helfer). I actually enjoyed it more when I believed that it was just Michael talking into the camera, explaining what had gone down on the past handful of episodes. We hear his voiceovers all the time, so there's already a built-in "breaking the 4th wall" element to the series. I guess I just really liked hearing a different recap from the opening credit "when you're a spy…" recap that we've been hearing for two years now. I still long for an actual opening credit sequence, with a theme song, that's free from exposition all together. In the opening scene, Michael decides to keep the identity of him bomber from Carla, in order to try and possibly team up with him to take on Carla.

The bomber is, the returning, Victor (Michaels Shanks), who we were once introduced to as Michael's "handler." Or "wrangler" depending on how much Michael chose to buck. We now know that Victor is, essentially, a spy that was burned just like Michael and has been being forced to work for Carla – just like Michael. He's Michael five years from now, which is a great notion that really adds a great bit of heat to their running feud. It would be interesting to learn if Victor has had his family threatened over the years, just like Michael. After all this time working for Carla, has Victor just become a hollow shell of his former self? He does come off a bit more psychotic and dangerous than Michael, but it's fun to think that this kind of "head case" is something that Michael could become.

The double silent treatment. Carla and Michael.

The Michael/Carla/Victor storyline worked very well in this episode, especially the endgame between Michael and Victor which involved a fistfight and a disposable camera/taser. What didn't work was, well, most of the rest. Dina Meyer (Starship Troopers, SAWs II & III) shows up as Michael's ex-fiance Samantha. Her presence makes both Fiona and Madeline act all jealous and wiggy even though, by now, they should both be used to Michael and his secret and shady past coming to bear. Samantha is supposed to be some sort of expert thief, but she enters into the picture dressed up like Michelle Pfeiffer from Married to the Mob. This kind of runs alongside with my stupid gripe about Carla - which is that female badass black op characters should look the part. Even Fiona seems a bit way too fashionable for the heavy handed work that she's supposed to have done in her past. There was nothing about Samantha that even remotely led me to believe that she was an expert crook. And I know Dina Meyer can pull this off, since she was quite the convincing badass in Starship Troopers.

The best part of her storyline was the evil character of Brennan (The Shield's Jay Karnes), who turned out to be a tremendously fun adversary for the gang. Here was a villain who really didn't fall for any of Michael's antics, and who basically had to be crudely strong-armed into giving back some stolen technology in the end. He was way too savvy for the gang, and his closing remarks led me to believe that we might not have seen the last from him, which is definitely a good thing. What I could have done without, however, was the bizarre slo-mo scene of Michael peeping at Samantha getting undressed and into a white scientist suit while they both undressed with their backs to each other. It was really ill-mannered and stuck out as crass and dumb on a usually slick and smart show. Michael is surrounded by girls in thongs 24/7, but now we need to take a time out while he watches his ex-fiance get into a jumpsuit?

The whole thing with "Michael's son" was just a tease, which is wasteful, but also forgiven since it might have been a deathblow to this show if they had to bring a kid into the mix.